Western Horse Watchers Association
Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
Opinion
Bureaucrats, Ranchers, Advocates Charged with Unlawful Use of Pesticides
Roy Steps Down, Board Resigns, Amid Allegations of Fraud
Leigh Backpedals on HMAPs, Admits Won’t Help Wild Horses
Velma Johnston Recognized as Only True Wild Horse Advocate
Court Orders BLM, Forest Service to Disclose Forage Allocations in Wild Horse Areas
Traffic from Facebook and Twitter accounted for 2.2% of the total during the month, down considerably from the same period two years ago.
Western Horse Watchers offers much for the advocates to dislike, especially the truth, plus commentary from a conservative viewpoint.
RELATED: Socialist Media Update for February 2024.
The advocates will do it for free.
With the Assateague and Currituck herds imploding because of too many nonviable mares, a fact they will never acknowledge, the advocates can point to their darting programs at the Salt River and Virginia Range as examples of mass sterilization supported by the public.
Except they won’t call it that. They’ll say it’s in-the-wild management.
Some observers claim that the FY24 budget cut will push the agency toward permanent solutions such as surgical sterilization.
RELATED: Mass Sterilization OK if Done with PZP.
Undoubtedly, the decision will keep their base fired up and the donations rolling in, a top priority for nonprofits, but areas identified for wild horses will still be managed primarily for livestock.
BEFORE HMAPs
AFTER HMAPs
Conclusion: HMAPs don’t make the needed changes, they maintain the status quo.
As for the burden on taxpayers, the advocates have an answer for that too.
RELATED: Court Sends Pancake EA Back to BLM for Further Analysis.
“Public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse or burro per thousand acres (27,000 animals on 27 million acres).”
Pure fiction, but the advocates have swallowed it hook, line and sinker.
File under: Allotments.
Instead of explaining the lopsided forage allocations that favor the ranchers and drive the roundups, the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, a leader in nonmotorized removal, agreed in a statement today that wild horse numbers should be reduced, but they should come down with ovary-killing pesticides, not helicopters.
That’s according to a story by KLAS News.
We know from their March 8 testimony in Las Vegas that they’ve bought into the overpopulation narrative and want to help the wild horse detractors.
Overpopulation means more horses than allowed by plan, not necessarily more horses than the land can support.
The bureaucrats and ranchers claim that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres (27,000 animals on 27 million acres), which is a fairy tale.
For every horse allowed on the range, three to six have been consigned to off-range holding because of permitted grazing, not because of inadequate fertility control.
RELATED: BLM Releases 2024 Wild Horse and Burro Population Dataset.
UPDATE: A March 26 news release by Return to Normal (Before WHB Act) says the same thing: Get rid of them with pesticides, not helicopters. The ranchers couldn’t have asked for better allies.
When you see headlines like this:
The first link, from this morning’s edition of Drudge, pointed to a story by CNBC.
RELATED: Wild Horse Advocacy in One Word.
The advocates are constantly shifting their vocabulary to keep you in the dark.
Like the bureaucrats, their goal never changes: Ranching superiority in the lawful homes of wild horses, sometimes referred to as achieving and maintaining AMLs.
To fulfill this purpose, they set up PZP darting programs and recruit dummies like you to carry them out.
Euphemisms for the process include:
They all mean the same thing: Sterilizing the mares with ovary-killing pesticides, leading to the destruction of entire herds in just five years.
RELATED: Understanding Advocatespeak.
Who’s the greater threat to wild horses? A grifter who sends letters to county wildlife boards seeking their removal from public lands or a real estate agent who’s taking them off the range with ovary-killing pesticides?
That’s the underlying issue in the latest installment of “Wild Horse Tales,” written by a PZP darter and appearing on page 18 of the March edition of Horse Tales.
You will not question the advocates. You will not doubt their authority.
They are the old guard, allies of the ranchers, leaders of the blind.
RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, Confessing Your Loyalties Edition.
The advocates are united in their love for on-range management, which is the same as humane management, which is a codeword for nonmotorized removal.
Thus, on-range management means off the range.
Their attitude toward wild horses differs little from that of the ranchers, evident in a news release dated March 18 by Return to Normal (Before WHB Act).
No surprises, though. They signed onto the “Path Forward,” a 2019 plan for ranching superiority in the lawful homes of wild horses, sometimes referred to as achieving and maintaining AMLs.
RELATED: Mass Sterilization OK if Done with PZP.
The Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses would never let the BLM get away with it, according to a news flash dated March 14, but they’ll do it as often as possible.
The idea was floated in a FY25 budget proposal, supposedly, but a link to the document was not provided.
Sterilization undermines genetic viability but also disrupts natural behaviors essential for the survival of wild herds.
Curiously, the nonprofit, a leader in nonmotorized removal, runs a sterilization program on the Virginia Range, now in its fifth year, while the Salt River Wild Horse Darting Group, a partner organization, does the same in the Tonto National Forest.
PZP tricks the immune system into attacking the ovaries.
It’s a pesticide, not a vaccine.
It’s not reversible. The sperm-blocking theory doesn’t correlate with the observed facts, such as the flat-lining of the herd on Assateague Island.
Damage begins with the first injection, leading to sterility in five years. Such animals are said to be “self-boosting.”
CAAWH said it “will deploy all necessary resources to prevent any mass permanent sterilization plan from becoming law” (but will actively solicit such arrangements through cooperative agreements).
Today might be a good opportunity to share some green beer with friends and tell them about resource mismanagement in areas identified for wild horses.
For example, on the Beaty Butte Allotment, which coincides roughly with the Beaty Butte HMA in southern Oregon, ranchers receive 26,166 AUMs on 506,985 public acres.
The horses receive 3,000 AUMs.
The AML is 250, compared to a True AML of 2,430, and 2,180 wild horses have been consigned to off-range holding because of permitted grazing.
The advocates tell you the answer is to end wild horse reproduction, not animal agriculture, because they’re in cahoots with the bureaucrats and ranchers.
The signatory to the “Path Forward,” a 2019 plan for ranching superiority on public lands in the western U.S., said in a March 11 news release that Congress should hold the BLM responsible for immediately implementing safe and proven fertility control that can stabilize herd numbers and end decades of failed, inhumane management by forcible removal.
Like the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, Return to Normal (Before WHB Act) has a leadership problem and will never be able to advocate effectively for wild horses without a thorough housecleaning.
The explanatory statement for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, one of six spending bills approved by the Senate yesterday and signed into law today, provides $141,972,000 for the program in FY24, down from $147,888,000 in FY23.
Go to the table on page 179.
With a growing number of animals in off-range holding, thanks to aggressive efforts this year to force them from their lawful homes, the reduction may necessitate some changes to the FY24 roundup schedule.
The statement indicates that up to $11,000,000 can be spent on the use of ovary-killing pesticides such as PZP, which it describes as “a robust and humane fertility control strategy of reversible immunocontraceptive vaccines.”
This result appeared yesterday in a Google search for “wild horses.”
If the advocates actually believed this, they wouldn’t be so eager to get rid of the horses.
It’s theater. They want the ranchers to win.
They go through the motions to win your support but in reality their hearts are very far from the horses.
Records at the Douglas County assessor’s office indicate the sale consisted of three transactions covering 21 APNs.
The project is dedicated to wild horse and burro habitat conservation according to a March 2 announcement distributed by Lucky Three Ranch.
Half of the parcels are designated for single family residences.
1. Document 2023-995176, Grant, Bargain, Sale Deed, $963,000.
2. Document 2023-995160, Grant, Bargain, Sale Deed, $2,067,100.
3. Document 2023-995179, Grant, Bargain, Sale Deed, $552,000.
Grand total: $3,582,100 for 3,269.44 acres, average price $1,095.63 per acre.
This was the justification for the rebranding.
In another example of conservation just a few miles north in Storey County, volunteers with the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses have been pummeling the Virginia Range mares with pesticide-laced darts since 2019.
RELATED: CAAWH Seeks More Land in Pine Nut Mountains?
Besides the hypocrisy, lies and collusion, no accountability to the public.
For example, the reports issued by the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses for nonmotorized removal on the Virginia Range do not discuss the
The population of over 3,000 wild horses has produced only three foals this year.
That’s great news to the bureaucrats and ranchers, whom CAAWH serves, but it’s frightening to the rest of us.
How close is the herd to the tipping point, where it implodes because most of the mares are sterile?
You have a right to know but they’re not talking.
RELATED: Virginia Range Darting Update for February 2024.
The Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, a leader in nonmotorized removal, reported today that 161 mares received 161 doses of PZP during the month, 22 given as a primer and 139 as a booster.
Over the life of the program, which began in 2019, the advocates have pumped 8,770 doses of the pesticide into 1,998 mares.
Three foals have been born year-to-date. One died of unspecified causes.
The current population is thought to be 3,444 with 338 horses listed as missing, compared to 3,465 with 342 horses listed as missing in January.
The population was 3,471 with 336 listed as missing in December.
The goal for March: “Continue to maximize booster treatments to mares across the Virginia Range before spring breeding season to prevent pregnancies, and continuing to allow for humane population decrease.”
Not discussed in the report:
PZP tricks the immune system into attacking the ovaries, resulting in sterility after five years of treatment.
The report will be submitted to the Nevada Department of Agriculture.
RELATED: Virginia Range Darting Update for January 2024.
The Douglas County Advisory Board to Manage Wildlife took no action at its February 27 meeting regarding a letter prepared by the Coalition for Healthy Nevada Lands, Wildlife and Free-Roaming Horses, according to a story dated March 1 by The Record-Courier of Minden, NV.
A copy of the letter, seeking a reduction of wild horses on public lands. was not included in the report.
Advocates attending the meeting came not as spokesmen for the horses but as defenders of humane management.
They noted that the Coalition pushes for the removal of wild horses to the point they would no longer be genetically viable, yet that’s exactly what they’ve done with their ruinous darting program.
Although there are around 80 wild horses in the Fish Springs herd, Western Horse Watchers suspects the breeding population is now in the single digits.
The sex ratio is likely skewed in favor of females.
The number of viable mares is unknown.
The Pine Nut advocates receive material support from the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, leader of the blind and recognized expert in nonmotorized removal.
They must contain 250 words or less according to an undated notice.
Presenters will be notified of acceptance by April 1.
The conference provides an opportunity for advocates to stop pretending that they care about wild horses and declare their fealty to the public-lands ranchers.
RELATED: 2024 FREES Conference Set for April.
